Unity5, alongside our partners at the National Persistent Evader Database (NPED) and Colchester City Council, have won the Parking in Action award at the British Parking Awards 2026 – recognising a project that has genuinely transformed how enforcement works across Essex.

 

The problem we set out to solve

Persistent evasion is one of the most damaging and entrenched issues in UK parking and compliance. NPED‘s research shows that the UK loses £1.8 billion annually in unpaid PCNs, with over 60% of persistent evaders lacking valid VED, MOT, insurance or keeper details — vehicles that are disproportionately linked to criminality, antisocial behaviour and road-safety risks. Traditional enforcement has struggled to keep up: 78% of Warrants of Control end up being written off, and councils have historically worked in isolation, with no way to share behavioural intelligence or track offenders across borders.

 

 

 

A first for the sector

Unity5 became the first technology provider in the UK to adopt NPED, enabling our clients NEPP (North Essex Parking Partnership) and SEPP (South Essex Parking Partnership) to become the first operational users of the national persistent evader database anywhere in the country. That mattered because NPED is the UK’s first national behavioural-intelligence engine for vehicle compliance – blending millions of unpaid PCN records with DVLA and DVSA data (and soon insurance data) to build real-time behavioural profiles of every vehicle, and to surface persistent evaders and high-risk vehicles that were previously invisible.

 

 

Richard Walker, Strategic Parking Lead at Colchester City Council and an NPED ambassador since the project’s inception, put it simply: “Having spent years inside councils dealing with persistent evasion first-hand, I understood exactly where traditional enforcement was failing… Seeing NEPP and SEPP become the first authorities in the country to put national behavioural intelligence into live use has been the proof that this approach works.”

 

 

The results speak for themselves

In just the first six months of using NPED, NEPP and SEPP delivered:

• Over £275,000 in annual savings
• A 48% reduction in cases progressing to Charge Certificate and TEC
• Major reductions in postage, administration and enforcement agent deployment

These figures are real, evidenced and repeatable – proof that intelligence-led enforcement can be both fairer and significantly more efficient. NPED’s behavioural scoring stops low-yield, high-risk cases from ever entering costly processing stages in the first place, letting councils focus resources on the vehicles that genuinely matter.

 

 

Beyond parking: influencing national policy and policing

The impact has reached well beyond Essex. NPED is now the evidence base for the proposed Vehicle Compliance Management Act, supported by MPs and peers, and is being integrated into police patrol vehicles through MAV Mobile – giving officers real-time visibility of dangerous or high-risk vehicles for the first time. NPED has already surfaced vehicle behaviour linked to serious criminality, including patterns associated with county-lines activity, with intelligence passed directly to policing for investigation. Essex has become the first region in the UK where parking intelligence is actively supporting frontline policing in this way.

 

As Tim Ashman, Director of TJA Associates and a consultant representing national roads policing interests, described it: “By securely linking local authority vehicle behavioural intelligence with policing systems, NPED provides fresh, actionable information on vehicles connected to evasion, risk and organised crime… NPED is a modern, practical tool that will materially benefit policing at both local and national levels.”

 

Other authorities are taking note. Josh MacDonald, Strategic Parking Manager at Cornwall Council, said: “When I looked at what NEPP and SEPP were achieving with NPED, the case was compelling. There’s a bigger picture too – Cornwall sees enormous volumes of visitor traffic from across the country, so the data we contribute helps build a national intelligence picture that benefits authorities everywhere, not just us.”

Ken Prior, Former Head of Service for Liverpool City Council, BPA board member and Council of Representatives said of NPED: “I’ve had the privilege of acting as a specialist adviser to NPED Services Ltd throughout the creation and early implementation of the National Persistent Evader Database, and I remain an unwavering supporter of this groundbreaking national initiative.

NPED represents a genuine step change in how local authorities – regardless of size, structure or geography, can tackle persistent evasion. For the first time, behavioural data generated within our own communities by the parking sector is being meaningfully connected to policing, intelligence and wider public protection. That connection is both exciting and long overdue.”

 

 

What this means

NPED is formally endorsed by the British Parking Association and the IPC, and has been described by a senior police officer as “the vehicle behavioural utopia.” For Unity5, this award is recognition of what’s possible when data, technology and policy come together with a genuine focus on fairness – reducing unnecessary enforcement on lawful motorists, protecting communities, and making the whole system more efficient.

Together, Unity5 and NPED have delivered the UK’s first real-world demonstration of national behavioural intelligence in parking – saving money, improving safety, elevating fairness, and rebuilding public trust. This is Parking in Action at its most powerful: smarter decisions, safer streets, and a sector leading with purpose.

Congratulations go to the whole Unity5 team, and to our fantastic customers Colchester City Council and pioneering partners at NPED, who made this possible.

 

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